Grandma Lucy’s Pimento Cheese
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Today I’m bringing you a much beloved recipe from the South. From what I read and hear, it isn’t nearly as popular outside of our little geographic region as it is here, but folks in these parts consider it a staple in every home!
Long before the days of snack cakes and convenience foods, Pimento Cheese sandwiches dominated minds when it came to a “quick bite to eat” or a “little lunch”. They were cheap and delicious on plain old white bread, although I serve mine on wheat these days.
I remember going to Grandmama and Grandaddy’s house and finding one or both sitting at their kitchen table having a pimento cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. They’d always ask “Ya want some puh-men-ah cheese, baby?”. I never refused.
I’ve wanted to get this recipe up on here for a while and asked Grandmama how she made her pimento cheese so I could bring you the taste I remember so well. She immediately said “Oh, now if you want the best pimento cheese, you gotta use Velveeta.”
What better time to bring you this than during my time serving as a Velveeta Kitchenista? I hope you’ve been visiting Velveeta It!’s facebook page this month as myself and four other Mom bloggers present a new Velveeta recipe each day but if you haven’t you can still breeze on over there and catch up on all of the wonderful tips and recipes that have been shared so far! Just visit www.facebook.com/velveeta and be sure to drop a howdy to me there this Thursday when I’ll be hosting Tasty Traditions Thursdays!
You’ll need: 16 ounce block of Velveeta, Pimentos, and a little Mayo.
Grate your Velveeta. Now Velveeta is a little on the soft side so I found an easy way of doing this. You remember play-doh? Just get your grater out and place the block of Velveeta against it and press into the grater. It comes out the other side quick and easy as can be and ends up being a lot less work than grating a block of cheddar.
Dump in a jar of drained pimentos. I used the small jar which is about 2 ounces.
Add about 1/2 cup of Mayonnaise. You can add more to taste if you like.
Stir that up well.
Grandmama doesn’t salt and pepper hers so I didn’t either. I found it to be utterly sublime as is but feel free to salt and pepper (and even garlic!) yours if you got a hankerin’ to.
Serve on a sandwich or crackers.
These are a standard at every party, too. There is nothing like little finger pimento cheese sandwiches with the crusts trimmed off to add an air of tradition to a gathering!
Did you eat pimento cheese growing up? Do you have a different recipe or a special Pimento Cheese memory?
Tell me about it in the comments!
Ingredients
- 16 ounce block Velveeta
- 2 ounce jar Pimentos drained
- 1/2 C Mayonnaise
Instructions
- Push Velveeta through a grater until all is grated in a bowl. Add Pimentos and Mayo. Stir well. Salt and pepper if desired. Serve on loaf bread.
Today’s quote is one of those that kinda hits you in layers. Hope you enjoy it!
“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
St. Francis of Assisi
Pimento Cheese was my favorite sandwich in my lunch box growing up – on white bread – and I had to have Fritos with it! My mom used grated sharp cheddar, pepper, and garlic salt – yum!
YUM. Yes, I love homemade pimento spread.
Although I grew up eating the stuff from Kraft in the little glass jar, not knowing there was ever such a thing as homemade.
After reading one of Fanny Flagg’s books (can’t remember which one) I just had to try Norma’s recipe. (fictional charactor who made this for her husband) It is so good!
It’s really good, it included grated onion, worce sauce, & a smig of red pepper, along with mayo & shredded cheese of course. 🙂
Here’s the recipe:
http://janedoesntblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/normas-pimiento-cheese.html
Ooooooo We love pimento’s n cheese! We live in Southern Maryland. We make it a couple different ways. Sometimes we make it with Velveeta, sometimes with shredded cheddar, sometimes we mix shredded cheeses – all the rest of the ingredients are the same though. This is a “go-to” item for unexpected company at lunchtime – great with tomato soup.
The recipe was passed down to us from my husband’s great aunts. I have fond memories of sitting in their dining room with them, fine china on the table cuz that’s all they ever used, these sandwiches, and lots of long conversation. After the sandwiches, we always stayed put at the dining room table and enjoyed hot tea and cookies. Ahhh the simple days.
Greetings from South Carolina! There are burger places throughout the state (I think it started in a place just of the USC campus in Columbia) that will server pimento cheeseburgers here. I have had them from Greenville in the north to Edisto Beach in the south.
My favorite thing to do is to use pimento cheese (it was always called pimento AND cheese back in Gurley, AL) on turkey sandwiches in place of sliced cheese. Of course, my wife thinks I’m completely insane.
John
I add a tad bit of white vinegar and sugar to mine, as per my mother-in-laws recipe. She makes the best pimento cheese in the world! (Have you ever wondered how you can follow the exact same recipe as someone else, but theirs is always the best, no matter what? That is stranger than fiction!)
So there used to be an amazing little pie shop in Little Rock with finger sandwiches on homemade bread and the pimento cheese there is the only I’ve ever had that I really liked. I read this post and thought, well, I’ll give it a try…
Tonight at the store, I bought the sliced white bread from the store’s bakery instead of the bread aisle. I pondered the huge block of Velveeta but thought it would just go to waste b/c nobody else at my house would eat it. Then, I turned around and looked at the shredded cheeses & discovered that Velveeta comes in a bag, already shredded! BINGO!! I bought the teeny jar of diced pimentos. I knew I only had Miracle Whip at home and someone had made a comment that M.W. made it too sweet. We NEVER use Mayo but I just happened to have grabbed a couple of extra individual packets of Mayo from Chick-fil-A. I came home, threw a handful of the already-shredded Velveeta (smile!) in a bowl, mixed in the pimentos & Mayo packets and slathered it all on the bakery bread and …SOUTHERN HEAVEN!!!
Plus, the only dirty dishes were the cereal bowl I mixed it in and the fork I mixed with! Can’t get any better than that!
Thanks, Christy!!
I grew up watching my mama make this all the time but especially in summer. She would just use a fork to mash up the soft cheese,pimento and mayo. It was so delicious we would just grab a pack of saltines and dig in. One of the yummiest sandwiches around.Thanks for sharing and all you do!